Inside The Bills

The stat crunchers and film reviewers at Pro Football Focus are again giving praise to Buffalo’s defensive line. Though their performance came in a loss at Pittsburgh, PFF was impressed with an across the board effort by the Bills men up front.

Defensive Line DominatesIt should be obvious by now, but the highlight of the Bills roster is their defensive line and, while we’ve seen big performances from two of the three starters, this was the most complete performance of the year for Alan Branch (+3.5), Marcell Dareus (+5.6) and Kyle Williams (+4.9) as a trio.
The three combined for a grade of +9.9 against the run, while Dareus did even more damage as a pass rusher.With a sack and three hurries from 29 pass rushes, he finished the game with a Pass Rushing Productivity Rating of 11.2.

While it was against center Fernando Velasco (-4.4) that he found the most success, both as a pass rusher and against the run, his biggest play came against right tackle, Marcus Gilbert on 3rd-and-7 with 8:48 to go in the third quarter. Beating him to the outside with ease, he was able to swat the ball away from Ben Roethlisberger and force a fumble, with only the quarterback’s quick reaction, and a bit of luck, preventing the turnover.

Up until now Dareus’ play has been much more up and down, but he’s been on an impressive run of form for much of this season, as he puts together his best year so far.